After building a seemingly insurmountable 17-point lead late in the third quarter of Friday's Tri-County Conference girls basketball matchup with league leader Madison, the Sand Creek Aggies went to a stall.

Or, did they?

The Aggies put a player in all four corners of the front court, stretching the Madison defense. They then ferociously attacked the basket, scoring when they had to and eventually put the game out of reach, winning 56-43. The win ended Madison's 31-game TCC winning streak and tightened up the league race.

Madison is now 8-1 in the TCC, while Sand Creek and Britton-Deerfield are each a game back at 7-2.

"They are used to running and gunning, just like we like to do," said Aggies coach Catherine Herriman. "We wanted to switch things up, give them a different look. The point wasn't to stall. We still wanted to score."

Madison coach Rick McNeil said his Trojans had to take a few chances when it was down double digits.

"We were trying to be aggressive," he said. "We got burned a little bit. But when you're down like that, you've got to take a few chances."

Scoring was never a problem Friday for the Aggies. Gabrielle Herriman gave the Aggies their first lead on a 3-pointer with 4:40 left in the first quarter. Less than 30 seconds later, she connected again, stretching the home team lead to 10-6. Two Sarah Wright baskets and one jumper by Mikaela McCarty later, and Sand Creek had a 17-6 lead on the defending TCC champions.

"We were in their faces. They didn't have many open looks. We knew they would shoot better here than they did against us at our place," said McNeil, referring to a 28-point Madison home win over Sand Creek earlier this year.

The Aggies were far from finished after that first quarter, even though Madison had a few runs to cut into the Sand Creek lead. Still, the Aggies led 28-20 at halftime, 32-22 with 4:39 left in the third quarter and 39-22 after McCarty drained a 3-pointer with 1:22 left in the third quarter. That basket came on a pass from Elizabeth Herriman, who found an open McCarty after the Aggies went to the stretch offense.

Madison cut into the lead with a big fourth quarter, mainly by Shayla Villarreal and Ashley Bussing. A Brittany Kelly jumper cut the lead to 48-42 with 2:12 left, but Elizabeth Herriman grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed Aggies free throw, made the basket and was fouled. Her free throw stretched the Aggie lead to 10 with 1:10 left and ended Madison's comeback hopes.

"Everyone was excited," coach Herriman said. "We wanted this so bad. It was a total team win. This wasn't about one player. They all played hard – as hard as any game we've played."

Page 2 of 2 - The first-year coach said the Aggies aren't looking ahead in the TCC race just yet.

"We take one game at a time, one practice at a time," she said. "The goal is always the same. We want to be No. 1 in the league. To be No. 1 in the league, you have to beat the top team and tonight we did. There's still a lot of the season left to play."